by Eric A. Crabtree
AUSTIN, TEXAS
Ambush Quote of the Times
Ambush is the Variety magazine of the Gay community. The art of female impersonation is always tastefully showcased each issue, more than any other Gay publication in Austin, giving us the exposure that we deserve. Thanks Ambush & Eric for keeping us where we belong, in the spotlight. - Scarlett Leigh - Austin's Own Cher Diva
July 4th Festivities
Slated by Austin Tavern Guild
T he Austin Tavern Guild (ATG) has set plans to host Liberty '99 on July 3 & 4 in Austin. Liberty '99 entertains Austin with a Dance Party on Sat., July 3rd from 7pm till 11pm. Featured entertainment is slated to appear. Beer will be served. Music will be provided by local Austin area DJs. Special guest appearances will be female and male dancers and divas from around Austin and the state. Other fun festivities are also planned. The event location will be in a downtown warehouse. $5 donations are requested for admission. On Sun., July 4th, the ATG will host their annual July 4th Picnic from 12 noon till 4pm. Food, beer, sodas, music, volleyball and fun are all in store for patrons. Admission is free; however, food and beverages are requested donations. Coors of Austin will be sponsoring both events along with ATG and beer will be served at each event with donations requested. All proceeds from Sat. and Sun.'s events will go toward benefiting Austin's Gay Charities as selected by ATG. For more information on either event, please contact Randy Cunniff at Splash Video Bar at splash@splashvideobar.com or Eric Crabtree at Ambush - Ozparade@aol.com. Recent '99-2000 elections of the ATG Board took place recently. Randy Cunniff was elected President; Scotty Percifull, Vice-President; and, Corey Duckett, Secretary-Treasurer.
Meltdown CD/Video Released
A nother great CD has been released from Austin with the premiere of Meltdown - Lust in Space, Vol. 1. Ben Parsley and Splash Productions along with Circuit DJ Roland (Ro) Belmares created this CD with a compilation of 11 fantastic dance songs. Starting with "She Wants You" to "Body," to "Joy," and then "It's All Over Now" to "Strong Enough," the CD keeps one rocking. The mixes continue to groove with "Unspeakable Joy," "Got the Groove" and "Spinning." Most of the songs were heard throughout the Memorial Day weekend by the 1,000s of men who pounced on Austin Meltdown. Meltdown '99, the video, will be released soon for only $19.95. Info and orders of the video may be obtained via MD99video@aol.com or by calling 888.558.1791 or 512.478.1791 in Austin. Meltdown - Lust in Space, Vol. 1 CD is available in Austin at Lobo Bookstore, N8, Outlines. CDs are also available in Houston at Lobo Bookstore and Record Rack and in Dallas at Outlines and Oaklawn Records. More info on Meltdown CDs and Video may be obtained at 888.558.1791 or 512.478.1791 in Austin or at www.partyaustin.com.
Incredible Joy & Lust:
Meltdown '99 & Memorial Day Weekend/Austin
J oy with Lust! That is what comes to mind when describing Austin's holiday weekend recently with the fun of Meltdown and Memorial Day Weekend mix. I personally experienced the weekend with 6 men who partied into and out of my life. The weather started rough with storms on Thurs and some on Fri; however, into the weekend, the sunshine poured into hot and sunny central Texas. My weekend started on Wed. before the holiday. I finally experienced the third trilogy play with my ex in Red, White and Tuna and had laughs aplenty. Then off to Charlie's Austin & Oilcans, where my ex never came home that night. Thursday's distribution of Ambush papered the city readying Austin for one large celebration of fun. As like Splash Weekend, Clifton from Boston came to town and changed my world once again with joy. The newly opened Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (ABIA) is one huge and nice airport y'all. I picked Clifton up and got lost twice on the way. To start off our holiday weekend, Clifton and I traveled from ABIA to Lexington, an hour away, to enjoy a fine home cooked meal prepared by our friends JJ and Rob. We ate a great meal and visited with the boys in their gardens of good and evil. Since JJ and Rob were traveling early to Pensacola the next morning (Both you guys should have stayed in Austin), Clifton and I traveled back to Austin and into a weekend of unspeakable joy, but I will try.
After taking care of some unfinished business with each other left over from Splash Weekend, we set out for the night to Splash for their Showtune Thursdays. Clifton sported his Genre tank from Splash Weekend and wore my own matching leather armbands while I wore my new Ramrod T-shirt that Clifton had presented to me from Boston. We then embarked on brief visits to the Splash, Oilcans, and the Edge and then over to Dick's to visit Warren and Boy, Kindell, and Bruce. Since the weekend was already packed full on our agenda, I wanted to take Clifton over to the Chain Drive to sport our leather harnesses that we had changed into for the occasion. We closed down the Drive with DJ Don Engle spinning the hits. Then with adorned harnesses and yes, a collar too, ventured to the Forum for some late night dancing. I must say, it is very rare;you will ever see me around Austin in a harness, much less a collar too, but what the heck. We never got the chance to make it over to the 1920's Club this weekend, but we hear they are the coolest bar in Austin and are even now open on Sundays too.
Fri. came and it seemed the men had just poured into Austin for the weekend with the last downpour that afternoon. Everywhere we looked more and more men flooded the city. Clifton and I spent the afternoon taking in Star Wars and then back home taking care of each other, yet once again. Nighttime fell and although we missed the opening VIP Meltdown party at Splash, we finally made it to Oilcan Harry's for First Call. We sported "glow"-our first of many for the weekend with our Alien buttons and rainbow necklaces and danced and partied the night away with old and new friends. DJs Licious, Miss H and Dig'M did a great job rocking the house. We met up with Ambush's Vinny and then Keith W. from Dallas. To continue our dancing beat, Clifton purchased us the great Meltdown - Lust in Space, Vol. 1 CD at the Splash Productions booth. Somewhere in all the fun Keith, Clifton and I decided to leave early because, as they stated, we would all have more time to "go play," so we traveled back to my condo.
Sat. morning arrived way too early. Vinny came over and with Clifton traveled to the bus departure. It was time for Lake Travis and Hippie Hollow with the Margarita's Lake Lounge on the barges. We journeyed on the first barge already full of hot men at the dock and sailed off on the lake bearing down on 100s of picturesque sailboats that passed our way. We arrived at the cove and next thing we knew all three barges full of food, drink and hot men came together as one big party island. Picture it all on the water, 6 decks all full of Circuit and Hollow queens dancing and partying to the beat of DJ Ric Herrington (Dallas). We partied with both old and new friends including Jeffrey and Gabriel. Somewhere around 4:30pm, we left and cruised back to the dock and Austin. We tried to catch a catnap, but the day's excitement was still pumping through us. Finally, it was Sat. night's Lust in Space Meltdown Circuit Party. The journey was dance music by DJ Ro at the Zona Rosa. We danced & met thousands of hot eye candy! Vinny, as we discovered throughout the night, did not show up for Lust n Space. We hear he had such a good a time at the lake that he passed out and did not make it Sat. night. (Boo, Vinny! Okay, you owe us.)
Around 12:45am or so, Austin's own Cher Diva, Scarlett Leigh, arrived belting out Cher's release of "Strong Enough" to the massive crowd. First appearing in this production was Flagger's Erik Day and David Duarte. Then the Meltdown Dancers featuring Joey Garcia, Chad Caranto, and Jason Maurer performed their choreographed steps introducing Scarlett as Cher. Scarlett adorned a silver metallic crushed velvet space body suit with matching bell-bottoms and rainbow iridescent moon boots. The flagger's wore silver vinyl shorts with the dancers sporting silver metallic velvet pants and Flash Gordon silver shoulder pads and laser pen light accessories. The crowd went wild through this smoke filled & back lit production theme into the night's Lust in Space. You pee'ed girl! Way to Go! Speaking of Austin Divas, Miss Ashley Collins' recent night in Corpus Christi won her the title of Miss Corpus Christi USofA '99. You go Ashley and many congrats. That Tiara is, as Miss Kelly Kline would say, "Stunning"!
After the Cher Meltdown production, Meltdown thrusted at warp speed with the the night's beat-all during a full moon too! Then out of the blue of the smoke they appeared in the dancing crowd. Entering the spaceport of La Zona came two aliens adorned with glow harnesses, glow facemasks, and blue glow veins up and down each arm and leg. These aliens completed their skin with N8 silver-metallic pants topped off with space boots, alien insignia and light-saber wands. Complements from the crowd on these Alien Circuit Boys came aplenty and each person we touched with our light-sabers and glow became mesmerized in an abduction of fun. Clifton and I had such a good time playing these Lust in Space Aliens. Thanks Clifton, and thank you Ben Parsley for the party, DJ Ro and all for a great time.
Closing down Lust in Space, we traveled in a "Journey to Planet K" for a brief visit to hear DJ Michael Tank (Houston) spin at Twilight at the Twist Nightclub. We only stayed for about 30 minutes or so because I knew what had to happen next. Clifton had a plane to catch at 6am back to Boston. I had dreaded these plans of his Boston obligations knowing of them before the holiday. Now the time had come, and way too soon. I had hired A Family Limousine (Bill Ankenbauer - 512.926.6040) to take us ABIA. My buzz and fever of the night's and weekend's festivities suddenly felt abandoned when I dropped Clifton off at the airport and kissed and hugged farewell. Delta had abducted my Alien. Leaving sadly, Bill chauffeured me back to Twist where I tried to regroup and regain the night's fun. It was just not the same. To no avail or substance could I regain the moments of fun and frolic of the night, now morning's fun. Even though the place was packed to the rafters with after-hours lust boys, I felt blue. I finally ran into a local bartender (name withheld for our own reasons) who took me home to comfort me from what had happened. My thoughts were still on my abducted Alien Circuit Boy whom I had partied with all weekend. Somehow I guess I was bound and determined to still have fun.
That morning turned into the night as I tried to sleep the day away. Vinny arrived at my condo and we traveled back into Guytown. Hitting Splash first, I tried to feel better with the first of many cocktails and with what DJ/VJ Joel was broadcasting and then we were off to the Forum for Summer Tea with DJ Don Bishop (Palm Springs). Vinny had to hit work until 3am and so I traveled with him to visit all at Oilcans and then off to the Edge to listen to DJ Little Debbie. Next it was over to Rainbow Cattle Co. where they were packed with dancing cowboys and cowgirls to the C/W sounds of DJ Kay. I later went back to the Forum where DJ Lydia Prim (New Orleans) featured Aurora till Dawn. There I ran into more new and old friends from throughout the weekend and I was finally felling better. I was home again.
I ran into Jeffrey who took me away dancing with the last of my glow. Vinny appeared and we all danced, danced, and danced. The fun was on the dance floor. I looked up at one point throughout the night and saw on the video monitor the Dance One Video made from Splash Weekend. There I saw a brief glimpse of Clifton and I dancing together in the final version. We had made the cut and I smiled and thought once again of Clifton. I continued to dance and even found myself carrying around a huge bowl of bananas and grapes like Carmen Miranda to the dancing men feeding all as I hopped from man to man. We closed down the Forum and Meltdown Weekend at Dawn. Jeffery, Vinny and I traveled back to my condo to relax and reflect on the fun. Memorial Day had arrived. Vinny left for home and Jeffery and I played and then woke up later. We traveled to get the Ambush pictures developed and to see what I could remember from the weekend. After the pictures, we ventured up to 'Bout Time and found Monte and Corey and toasted with our final Memorial Day cocktails. Tuesday came and it was back to reality for all. Ok, what's next? Oh Yeah, July 4th weekend here. Have a fantastic and safe summer Austin.
